Fantasy Baseball

This book is fun! Very easy to read with a unique look at an everyday sport. Kids and adults will enjoy the wacky characters! I've read other books by this author and found that you certainly don't have to be a child to enjoy them. This one is fun to read to the kids. A homerun!

Fantasy Baseball was a great read. Lot's of fun. It brought back lots of memories of some of the books I read as a kid. It would be a great book to read as a family.

the price was great, the book was great, the author was great! the fpaperbackness.. was not my favorite but it was great overall!

My son really enjoyed the book!

Just as the best (at least for the attending parent) children's movies are those that have something for the more experienced/mature viewer, the best children's books are those that can be read by those with different levels of reading experience and maturity. This book provides that for the reader. The word usage is accessible and the baseball games are quickly handled and exciting for the less experienced reader. The characters are homages to many of the well known characters of children's literature (with a few less known and more challenging characters to discover). The fun of finding an old friend in a completely different setting is an exciting puzzle for the reader of more experience. The puzzles come from the description of the characters who are frequently not specifically named but can be readily identified. The most surprising aspect is the delicately handled background which packs an emotional punch for those old enough to recognize its import without becoming sappy or depressing (and which may not be picked up upon by the younger readers). This book offers different levels of enjoyment, and can present an increasing and deeper pleasure with rereading at intervals of reading development. It is also a book a parent can read with a child with both parties enjoying the experience. Warning: You might find yourself compelled to read (or reread) some of these characters in their original settings.

Alex Metcalf wakes up one day in Ever After where all storybook and fairytale characters live. This alternate world is just beginning a baseball tournament. Alex finds himself on the Oz Cyclones team bus. Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz is the pitcher and captain. Toad from Wind in the Williows is the shortstop. Br'er Rabbit plays third. The rest of the team is made up of less famous Oz characters.Each member on the winning team gets one wish granted by the Wizard. Dorothy is determined to win a showing with the Wizard. Alex was born to play baseball and will be the Cyclones new first baseman. They go on to play such teams as the Little Women, (Jo, protects her pitcher behind the plate) a Manga team, and Mother Goose.I knew I was going to enjoy the baseball aspect of this story. It was the fantasy and the classical characters I was concerned about. I was only familiar with a few of the characters. (I've never read many of the these classics, like Wind in the Willows)I worried for nothing. Fantasy Baseball was easy to fall into. My lack of classical book knowledge didn't lessen my enjoyment. Toad, the player and the politician was one of my favorite characters. Gratz also includes a few contemporary characters. Lester from Ingrid's Savvy drives the Cyclone team bus and a pig that sounds very much like Olivia is the pitcher for the pigs team.In the first game thanks to Alex everyone laughs at the Big Bad Wolf. The Wolf is not happy, throughout the story he pops in and out in various disguises trying to catch and eat Alex. I really enjoyed this Wolf as the bad guy. It gave the story just the right amount of danger. I absolutely loved Alex's security detail, Nanny Mae and her cat Mrs. P. All Nannies are a part of the Wizard's secret service. There was a great action filled Nanny face off. Very intense and exciting.All the characters worry their stories will go unread and they will being forgotten. When that happens they vanish from Ever After. This aspect of the story could've easily become too much lesson about remembering classics but the author doesn't let it. Gratz also does a very good job of balancing baseball and fantasy. There isn't too much baseball for non baseball fans but enough for baseball fans to enjoy. There isn't too much fantasy for non fantasy fans, fantasy fans will appreciate the author's world building. I am glad I finally picked this one up, its great story.

Fantasy I read, Baseball never, so when I saw this title it worried and intrigued me at the same time. Reading the book flap it told me that it was about a boy who was playing for the Oz Cylcones with a girl named Dorothy. So now we brought fantasy with the Wizard of Oz, two of my favorite things to read. Well, I tried it. First few chapters had me a little flummoxed. The character is there one moment and than disappears. For a while this happens. So keep reading and get past that hump of not understanding and soon it will become crystal clear. Turns out they are playing a Baseball game and the winning team gets to meet the wizard and get a wish granted. The various teams they play all have characters in them from books. I thought it was fun to figure out what books the characters were from, a few still have me stumped. So it does involve a baseball game, but at a beginning level that I, who don't follow baseball, can still understand. Thank goodness! The main character is a boy named Alex who everyone calls a Lark. What is a Lark? You have to read it to find out. Once I got over the hump, it read very easily. I would like to read about Alex again. I loved the whole Oz connection and using storybook characters set in a land called Ever After means anything is possible. It also sends a message about keeping literature alive for children. Good Book!

Alan Gratz (I know him, by the way) is not very well known in writing (yet), but I loved the book. Although I dont know some of the characters like Tik-Tok, Button Bright, and Scraps, I still caught on quickly. The book is very spontaneous and dramatic, and Its right in the little kid level. Very Good Book. I reccomend it to all fantasy and baseball lovers.